The healthiest diet in the world

Finally, we found the perfect menu for everyone - say the researchers. The DASH diet not only reduces weight but also reduces blood pressure and protects against heart disease.

The best way to feed people is the Mediterranean diet - scientists have been persuading us for years. Today, however, it turns out that the menu of the inhabitants of southern Europe is far from perfect. Their diet is not able to effectively prevent heart disease or obesity. Dieticians therefore began to look for a new diet, more suited to the current lifestyle of residents of developed countries. And they came across DASH (dietary approaches to stop hypertension). Years ago, it was recommended almost exclusively to people suffering from hypertension, now - as experts say - it can be an ideal diet for all, and for life, because it allows you to live a healthy life for a few years.

The group of 22 experts rated the DASH diet so highly, among others diabetologists, specialists in dietetics and food psychology. At the request of the popular American weekly U.S. News & World Report looked at 25 diets - from vegetarian and Mediterranean to the Weight Watchers diet or the recently fashionable Dukan's diet. The verdict was announced in January this year. The basis of the DASH diet are cereal products, fruits and vegetables and dairy products, and its guiding principle is: less salt, and more healthy, unprocessed food. Selected products should be eaten during three main meals and in the form of four snacks a day. Several times a week you can afford something sweet - honey or chocolate. It's the only cover, because going to the DASH diet, you have to completely change the style of eating. The diet forces you to give up salt, white bread, red meat, sweets and cakes. This is why DASH has dethroned the Mediterranean diet, which allows too much

salt and products containing cholesterol.

Stop aging

The DASH diet primarily reduces blood pressure, as evidenced by the observations of prof. Eva Obarzanek from the University of Pittsburgh. The scholar divided the participants of the study into three groups. One was on a DASH diet, the other on a fruit and vegetable one, and the third person ate what they wanted. After six years, it turned out that in all volunteers on the DASH diet, systolic and diastolic blood pressure decreased by 7-8 percent. - For a completely natural therapy, it's really a lot. Such a result is obtained during therapy with low doses of antihypertensive drugs, and remember that according to the NATPOL study in Poland, approximately 10.5 million people suffer from hypertension - says prof. Małgorzata Kozłowska-Wojciechowska from the Warsaw Medical University.

Further research has shown that diet also reduces the level of bad cholesterol (with NATPOL 2011 it appears that high cholesterol has as many as 18 million Poles). - The diet was composed in such a way as to eliminate harmful saturated fats and trans fats, and enrich with vegetable fats that help maintain lipid balance - says prof. Kozłowska-Wojciechowska. So we have to say goodbye to fat red meats, because there is bad cholesterol in them. White meat and fish are allowed. - As well as vegetables and fruits that have anti-inflammatory properties, because they reduce the formation of free radicals, so the DASH diet also stops the aging process of the body - says the Professor.

Potassium versus sodium

The healthiest diet in the world forces a large reduction of salt, and more specifically sodium, because it raises the pressure. - This element is essential for the proper functioning of the body, but it can not be too much - says Dr Wojciech Kolanowski from the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. When it is in excess, the body quickly accumulates water to dilute it in the blood, and this makes the blood pressure increase. Over time, this leads to damage to the vessels and burdens the heart, which must work more efficiently - explains Dr. Kolanowski.

People on a DASH diet can eat only 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day, or half a teaspoon of table salt. However, you do not need to salivate foods or cook pasta or vegetables in salted water. We will supply the necessary amount of sodium by eating naturally salty cheeses or lightly salted poultry cold meats. - In the DASH diet, you can use other spices without restrictions: pepper, paprika and herbs, which will give the dishes a distinctive taste - says prof. Kozlowska-Wojciechowska. DASH also makes sure that we do not run out of magnesium and potassium. Both of these elements are essential for the proper functioning of the circulatory system. Potassium also inhibits the development of hypertension. It is because of its that the water is flushed out of the body, and the less water, the lower the pressure in the arteries. Therefore, DASH is rich in nuts, legumes, spinach and bananas - rich sources of magnesium, as well as potatoes, red beans and tomatoes, in which

potassium is full.

In DASH, there is also a shortage of milk and its low-fat products, because they provide calcium necessary for building bones, but also for the proper functioning of the circulatory system. Its deficiency causes pressure and blood clotting disorders. - Of course, some plants, such as lettuce, also have it, and a lot, but it is not as easily absorbed as dairy - says prof. Kozłowska-Wojciechowska. The DASH diet recommends eating dairy even several times a day. You just need to remember to choose lean milk and lean cheese, preferably acidified, or kefirs and yogurts, because they are better absorbed by the body, and thus calcium is more easily absorbed.

Eat the chocolate

DASH does not force the resignation of carbohydrates that have been so far removed by nutritionists from worship and faith. On the contrary, carbohydrates are the basis of this diet. According to experts, it is the most effective and the most healthy source of energy, provided that they are complex carbohydrates, i.e. whole-wheat breads, thick-grain flour, cereal and dark pasta. They are rich in fiber,

which regulates the work of the intestines and reduces the absorption of sugar, and therefore promotes a slim figure. We should give up for this from highly processed carbohydrates, ie white flour rolls, biscuits or light pasta. Professor Kozłowska-Wojciechowska believes that DASH is a diet for everyone. Thanks to it, you can not only stay healthy, but also slim and feel younger.